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Its paper concluded there is little evidence of "churn" among workers from Eastern Europe and no sign of any significant outflow of EU workers.

In any case, the report said, the stock of EU workers in the UK can be maintained with nil net migration since those who leave could be replaced by others without adding to the figure.

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: "The Government must insist that claims that we need an endless flow of workers from the EU to fill lower-skilled jobs are gone over with a fine toothcomb."

Setting out its findings, Migration Watch said: "The need for ever-more EU workers in the UK has been greatly exaggerated."

The reliance of parts of the UK economy on migrant labour has come under close scrutiny in the wake of the Brexit vote last year.

An official analysis published in April and based on 2016 data showed that EU nationals account for as many as one in 10 employees in some sectors.

It showed an estimated 3.4 million workers, or 11 per cent of the UK labour market, were overseas nationals.

This number was made up of around 2.2 million EU nationals (7 per cent) and 1.2 million non-EU nationals (4 per cent).

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Statisticians said international migration is particularly important to the wholesale and retail, hospitality, and public administration and health sectors.

In its report Migration Watch, which campaigns for tighter immigration controls, argued: "The significance of EU workers to particular sectors depends not only on their number but also on their proportion in the sector; this is often low."